Till the End
by TheAtomicRush
Summary: Percy is tormented by his abusive stepfather. Annabeth is tired of the pressure put on her by her mom. Jason is tired of having his heart broken. Piper and her father are struggling to make ends meet. Their lives collide, but something goes wrong. They are thrust into the real world full of lies, deceit and don't know who to trust. Eventual Percabeth and Jasper. High School AU.
1. Prologue: Percy

**PROLOGUE**

**Percy POV**

I splashed into the pool. Did I forget to mention how much I loved swimming? I could swim all I wanted and didn't need to have a care in the world. I was pretty freaking good at it too. I could've made the swim team if it wasn't for my…problem. At least, Jace said so.

"Spend any longer in there and you'll drown"

That was my best friend Jason (it wasn't like I had much). Jason was the best friend you could ever find, no matter what happens to me, Jason sticks with me. Deciding to not keep Jason waiting, I got out of the pool.

"Okay, it's official." Jason stated, "If you don't join the swim team, I'll kick your ass."

"You know why I can't join Jace" I replied.

"But Perce, you're so freaking good at it. That was ten minutes without breaking a sweat. You could easily go twenty and maybe more. That's almost a world record."

"But Gabe said…"

"But Gabe said my ass. All I does is make yours and your mom's lives shitty."

"I know, I know. But remember August 18th?"

"Your birthday?"

"Yeah"

"What about it?'

"My fourteenth birthday."

"Oh."

"Yes oh. Imagine what he'd do if I made the team."

"You mean when you make the team"

"Whatever Grace, I'll think about it."

"Just remember" Jason stated, "Don't give a shit about…"

"What's a shit Jason?" came a voice from behind them.

We turned around to see Tommy, Jason's six-year-old brother, standing there and Sam, his fourteen-year-old sister standing behind him smirking.

"Why don't you ask daddy Tommy." Sam suggested.

"SAMMM!" Jason yelled.

I laughed one of my rare laughs. Jason's family wasn't perfect, but I still wished I had a family like his, even though they had practically adopted me.

Instead of acknowledging Jason, Sam decided to start chatting with me to piss him off more. "Hey Percy" she said.

"Sam" I replied. Jason was fuming and was about to yell, but he noticed that Tommy was missing.

"Daddy…" Tommy started.

"NOOOOOOOO!" Jason yelled while running into his dad's room. "Tom…uhm…has to get ready for school." Jason dragged Tommy into his room, not before stopping and glaring at Sam. Sam and I both burst out laughing. This was why I wanted a family like Jason's. They all loved each other even though they showed it in different ways.

"Speaking of school, I've got to get ready" Sam said.

"Yeah…me too" I replied.

I waited for Sam to leave and made my way out of the house, walking to his house. I prayed that Gabe wouldn't be home. I couldn't afford to have another tardy or else I would have to attend a parent-teacher conference. Mom would be at work so Gabe would have to go. I mentally shuddered at the thought of what would happen after.

I reached my house and opened the door tentatively, I stepped inside. After seeing that no one was home, I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. I walked into my room and pulled out my drawer. I took one look at the picture, and then closed it and went to get ready.

**LINE BREAK**

I was exhausted by the time I got to first period due to missing the bus. Needless to say, I ran all the way to school to avoid the parent-teacher conference I'd been dreading. I made it into first period just before the bell and plopped down into my seat next to Jason. Mr. English, our math teacher (ironic, right?), was an old mad hard of hearing so Jason and I could talk all period. Today though, I decided to nap. You'll have to cut me some slack though. You don't know the half about what's happened to me. What happened? You'll find out soon. I plopped my notebook onto Jason's desk.

"So you gonna tell me what happened today?" Jason asked.

"Nah, take my notes." I said nonchalantly.

"Fine, but you owe me" He replied.

"Whatever" was the last thing I said before inadvertently passing out.

**AN: **Hey everyone! First off, thanks for reading the prologue of my first story ever. I wrote this chapter in first POV but I'll probably write the rest of the story in third person. Percy is not going to be the only main character, but it will be slightly Percy-centric. That being said I do have plans for where the collective plot and the individual mini-plots will go. Please review because it helps me out a lot. If y'all like this kind of plot, please let me know! I'll be much more motivated to write more and write more quickly. That being said, peace out y'all, and see you guys next time.


	2. Prologue: Jason

Prologue

Jason POV

"Jason, things aren't really working out between us right now" Melissa stated.

"So … do you want to start over?" Jason hesitantly inquired.

"I'm sorry Jason, we should just be friends," Melissa replied and walked away.

"Melissa!" Jason shouted, running after her. "Wait! Please! ... I love you," He whispered, his voice crumbling. Jason turned and found the nearest bathroom. Once he was alone, a tear leaked down his cheek. Then two. Then a whole lot more as Jason broke down, crying. "Why?" he thought aloud. "She was the one. She loved me and I loved her. She cared about me so much. I would've done anything for her. She would've done anything for me."

"Sorry, Jace but I'm not so sure about that." came a familiar voice from behind him.

Jason turned around to see Percy standing behind him dimly.

"Oh … hey Perce," Jason muttered. To be honest, Jason knew that it was pathetic. Even Percy could see through him.

"I already know what happened, because it's what always happens, but ask you to make you feel better" Percy replied.

Jason almost snorted. Almost. "Why does it happen every time? She loved me, Percy! I knew it. What did I do wrong?"

'Date her." Percy replied. "This happens every time, Jace. You're the popular star of the soccer team. Any girl would love to date you, but not all girls will actually like you. We've gone through this before."

"So no one likes me." Jason retorted, sniffling. "Thanks a lot, Perce."

"You know what I mean. I'm gonna leave you to your thoughts now so think about what I said. Aaaaand … class starts in fifteen seconds. Good luck!" Percy said before dashing out the door.

Jason smiled but it vanished soon after. Jason felt pathetic. He was depressed about a relationship that barely existed. No dates. No nothing. But he still felt it. She had helped him out of a tough time. Or had she? She helped him overcome the last breakup didn't she? But she also became his next one. "I feel like a friggin player," Jason said out loud to himself. He sighed and decided to let these thoughts bother him next period, and got up and went to class, tardy.

LINE BREAK (Time Skip to Soccer)

"ONE MORE REP! COME ON!" Coach Hedge screamed.

Jason exhaled and then sprinted touched the line and came back through the starting line, ahead of everyone else.

"Okay cupcakes." Coach started, "Time for shuttle runs. You know the drill. One run and then a 15-second break as your partner goes. Time each other. NOW GET UP AND GET YOUR BUTTS OVER THERE!"

Jason would usually find one of his friends, but he was so deep in thought that he didn't care. He ended up with some junior that he didn't know. The other guy went first. Jason didn't really pay attention to him other than the fact that he got a 5 second time. Jason lined up for the run. "Why does this even matter?" he thought.

"Go!" the junior said.

Jason felt his feet pound at the turf, running. It was surreal. It was as if something else had controlled him. He felt raw strength, speed, and power. His thought of "no one will ever love me" was interrupted by him finishing and the look of absolute shock on his partner's face. Jason snapped out his thoughts and managed a "what?"

His partner wouldn't respond so he went over and looked at his time. His mouth nearly mirrored his partner's. Three-point-nine seconds.

Jason was dumbfounded. But more importantly, he was confused about what took over him.

"WHAT THE HECK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING CUPCAKES! NEXT REP!" Coach yelled. When Jason didn't budge, still deep in thought, Coach marched over there to give make them run.

When Coach Hedge marched up, the shock on his face surpassed the junior. When Coach regained his calm. "Well, Grace. Good Job."

"Okay cupcakes, gather round," Coach called. "Grace here has made me change my mind. We're doing soccer. Get your cleats on" The whole team erupted into cheers and got ready for soccer.

As Jason was pulling his cleats on, Coach approached him. "I expect a lot from you in shooting" Coach said.

Jason blushed a bit and pulled out his goalie gloves.

"Well then." Coach said, "The expectations still stand though, Grace."

Jason nodded and went and joined the team.

"Goalies get warmed up, the rest of y'all come with me." Coach instructed.

Jason went toward the goal to meet two boys standing there and talking.

"Well! You must be the freshie goalie! I'm Tucker Fox!" One said.

Jason nodded.

"Uhm, sorry if this sounds rude, but your name? Mine's Brandon Parks by the way."

"Jason Grace," Jason said. He had heard about the great Tucker Fox and Brandon was supposed to be really good.

"So you're the guy that got us to play soccer. What did you do?" Tucker interrogated.

"I didn't do anything… I just got a good shuttle time." Jason replied

"Like under a four forty-five? That's better than Tucker!" Brandon remarked

"Shuddup," Tucker retorted.

"Yeah," Jason said.

"Really? What did you get?"They asked.

"YOU BETTER BE WARMING UP MAGGOTS!" Coach Hedge screamed.

Jason sighed and began to warm up with Tucker and Brandon. And they were good. "No wonder no other goalie signed up for try-outs" he thought. As their warm-ups came to an end a new man came up to them and introduced himself.

"Greetings, goalies. I am Coach Z, your goalie coach. No need to introduce yourselves as I already know your names. The field players will be doing basic shooting drills. Though perfection is very improbable, I expect perfection as striving for it leads one to greatness. Now get into the goal. Rotate keeper every five shots." He said.

Jason got into line behind Brandon, wondering why the goalie coach was so cold. As he was looking around, he noticed this kid hobbling toward them. The kid was the epitome of unathleticness (AN: That's a word cuz I said so). Coach Z turned to him with a calculative gaze.

"Ugh!" The kid said as he arrived. "Can y'all believe it! The stupid coach made me come to tryouts. Like I need to come to tryouts. We already know I'm going to be varsity goalie. It's obvious that all of y'all suck"

"You, there. Fat boy." Coach Z announced. "Who are you, why are you here, and give me one reason to not kick you out of here."

"Octavian the Great" the kid said "and I'm here for tryouts, duh."

Jason was really beginning to hate this kid. Jason was barely paying attention as Coach Z coldly berated Octavian. The strikers were beginning to shoot. He watched as Tucker saved one. two, three, four, and then all five shots with ease. Though with a bit more difficulty, Brandon also saved all five shots. Jason went into his position in front of the goal. The first shooter he faced was the junior that he was with during the shuttles. The junior looked up at Jason and panicked, kicking the ball above the goal. The second shooter came up and shot to his left. Jason released the tension in his legs and dove to the left, pushing the ball out of bounds. The third shot went to his right, in the air. With, a simple jump, Jason caught it. The fourth shot took Jason by surprise and went right above his head. He reflexively jumped and punched it over the goal. "Four for four," Jason thought. "Only one more to go." The last shooter dribbled up and shot. He must have whiffed the ball because it was heading straight to Jason. "Easy five for five," he thought. Boy, was Jason wrong.

At the last moment, Jason heard "MOVE ASIDE PEASANT! OCTAVIAN THE GREAT SHALL SAVE THIS SHOT!"

Jason panicked as he saw Octavian run in front of him to try and catch the shot. Instead, Octavian missed and tipped the ball toward the top corner of the goal. Jason was ten yards in front of the goal. Jason knew he couldn't save it, but he felt the power from before return to him. Jason knew what he had to do. Jason took two steps back toward the goal. Jason felt his knees tense up, and release, propelling him toward the goal, one hand stretched out. Just before the ball entered the goal, the flying form of Jason Grace tipped the ball out.

AN: Percy's life is messed up but Jason's is pretty messed up too. At least Jason has soccer to relieve his breakup depression. As y'all may have noticed I have titled this chapter "Prologue" even though this is the second chapter. I've decided to make a "Prologue" for each of the main characters before moving on to chapter five. Percy's chapter was kinda short but I think I've made this one long enough to make up for it. I'll try to write about 1000 words per chapter, and as much as I'd love to upload every weekend, I probably can't because I've got a lot of stuff going on during the week and weekend. I'll try to update every week, but it will probably be every two or three weeks. To clarify, Percy, Jason, Annabeth, and Piper are freshmen in high school and this is around the beginning of the year. If you've got any questions or comments, review or PM me, (but review anyways cuz it makes me happy :) ). Anyways, peace out y'all, and see you guys next time!


	3. Prologue: Annabeth

Prologue

Annabeth POV

FLASHBACK

"Is daddy gonna be surprised?" A young Annabeth inquired.

"I'm sure he will, Annie," Athena said with a smile. "Now get in the car or daddy will be sleeping by the time we get there."

Annabeth giggled and got in. Though silent for most of the car ride, Annabeth was quite a social person. Even if she had no one to talk to, she would be perfectly fine talking to herself. Which was exactly what she was doing at the moment.

By the time they arrived, Annabeth was so deep in conversation that she barely noticed.

"Are we here?" she inquired.

"Yes," Athena replied, "So what are you going to say to daddy when we get to his room?"

"Congraduations on graduating!" Annabeth chimed.

"Annabeth, it's congratulations, not congraduations" Athena corrected.

"But isn't daddy graduating?" Annabeth asked.

Athena stifled a laugh and said "Okay. Congraduate him. Now come on!"

Annabeth counted the floors as the elevator went up and stopped at 13.

"Isn't 13 an unlucky number mommy?" Annabeth asked as the elevator stopped.

"As long as the three of us are together, nothing is unlucky" Athena replied, smiling.

They exited the elevator on the thirteenth floor and walked toward the room.

"1321. That's his room." Athena stated, "Ready?"  
"Yupp!" Annabeth replied excitedly.

Athena took a step forward and knocked on the door twice. And waited. And waited. And waited.

"Where is daddy?" Annabeth asked.

"He's … probably just taking a shower" Athena replied. "I'll just take a quick listen."

Athena put her ear to the door. Annabeth waited eagerly to see what had happened. Athena started to look a little worried.

"Fredrick?" Athena called.

"What's wrong mommy? Annabeth pried.

"Fredrick, are you alright?" Athena asked with a little more urgency.

Annabeth started to hear some banging coming from the inside.

"FREDRICK OPEN THE DOOR THIS INSTANT!" Athena yelled, banging at the door with all her might.

By now, Annabeth could hear grunting and yelling coming from the room. "Mommy?" Annabeth whimpered, with tears threatening to flow down her cheeks.

"Stand back Annabeth," Athena stated coldly, and the charged at the door, breaking it down.

"FREDRICK!" Athena screamed.

"Mommy, daddy?" Annabeth walked into the room. There was her mom, almost crying, and running towards her dad who was lying there beaten, bloody, and bruised, with multiple wounds, and a man with a mask and something that looked like her kitchen knife.

By the time that Annabeth had figured out what had happened, it was too late.

"Daddy NOOO!" Annabeth cried, helpless, as the masked man drove the knife into her dad's neck, and twisted the handle.

"NOOOOOOOO!"

END FLASHBACK

Annabeth woke up, sweat covering every inch of her body. She looked around and sighed, realizing that she wasn't there and that she was in her room, safe. She sighed again, but this time because she realized that she had to go to school. She got out of bed, grabbed her towel and got in the shower.

It was cold at the beginning but as soon as the water warmed up, she was able to relax, and think. Hot showers were the best. Annabeth went through her mental checklist. Math homework; check. Science test; studied for. English essay; done. Annabeth went through a checklist like this every day. To any other person, this would be normal. But to Annabeth, well, the checklist for today was done two days ago. This checklist was for the day after tomorrow. Organization is control. Possibly the only word that came close to hot shower. If one was organized, then they would be in control. And Annabeth knew better than anyone about the importance of being in control. That night that her father died, Annabeth nearly lost control of her life. She had barely managed to steady herself. That night, Annabeth promised herself that she would never lose control, never again. Annabeth got out of the shower and got dressed.

LINE BREAK

Annabeth entered the subway and looked around. She was not overly dressed, just wearing a gray hoodie and black sweatpants. She found her train and approached it with a light jog. She entered it and, soon after, the doors closed. She found herself with nothing to do and, out of curiosity, decided to observe her surroundings. She didn't find anything much of interest and was about to go back into her own thoughts. Right before she could, however, she spotted a pair of sea-green eyes. She looked at them and realized they were looking back at her. Through the crowded subway, she couldn't tell much more about the eyes, she could tell that they belonged to a man with a mop of black hair. As she continued to stare into his eyes, a weird feeling arose inside her, one that she had never heard before. And for some reason, she felt like she might have liked it.

"Last call for Goode High" Annabeth heard the speakers blare.

As she shook off the weird feeling and exited the train, she took one last glance at the green eyes, but they were no longer there.

"He must have left," she thought.

Annabeth sighed, turned, and walked towards school.

LINE BREAK

Annabeth's feet pounded the pavement. The music was blasting in her ears through her headphones. She looked ahead. The finish line was near. She picked up the pace. She was sprinting, but she didn't feel it. She wanted to go faster, and she did, the music propelling her forward as the beat dropped. She crossed the finish line and checked her watch. It was a satisfactory time for now. As she grabbed a towel to dry off her hair and neck, a cloud covered the sun, and the temperature began to drop.

Annabeth turned around to see the familiar scowling face of Athena.

"What do you want, mother?" Annabeth asked coldly.

"I don't want anything, but if you knew what was good for you, you would be working on your medical portfolio, instead of getting sweaty like a pig." Athena retorted. "But, of course, you do not know, so I must give you a … friendly … reminder."

"I already finished it mother dear," Annabeth said with the world's fakest smile.

"Oh, Annabeth! You amuse me. Do you think you can get into Stanford with one essay?" Athena replied with a fake chuckle.

"Well I still have more than three years to come back and finish that stupid essay of mine, so I think that I'll pass for now," Annabeth stated.

"Young lady, did that sound like a request to you? Well, it wasn't so you better get your butt up and start your next essay. Or else..." Athena threatened.

Annabeth visibly shuddered. "Mom please don't … I already finished all my homework…" Annabeth pleaded.

"I said GET UP AND START YOUR ESSAY," Athena yelled.

"Ma'am please leave this area." A voice called from behind Annabeth.

Annabeth faltered for a second as she turned. The lifeguard of the pool behind them was there. Those sea-green eyes…

"You are disturbing the peaceful environment of this area." He said, "Please leave before I make you."

Athena glared at him, said "You'd better finish that essay," and left.

"Thanks" Annabeth stammered.

"No problem." He said. He turned and was about to leave, but Annabeth interrupted him.

"You're the guy from the subway." She stated. Something about him being here felt right, but at the same time, a bit too convenient. Annabeth had to get answers if she wanted to stay in control.

"Percy." the guy said.

"Huh?" Annabeth asked

"My name," he replied.

"Oh. Then, Annabeth," she stated.

"Huh?" Percy asked with a smirk on his face.

"My name" Annabeth replied as if it was obvious.

After a few seconds, a realization dawned on Annabeth.

"Oh." She said, her cheeks turning red, as she was flustered about how she got played into that one.

"Percy" chuckled and walked away. Strange, how a stranger had made her day. Annabeth too turned and walked away, but not before looking back and getting one more glance. Percy. Even though she knew she wouldn't see him again, she hoped she would. Content, Annabeth walked away into the setting sun.

AN: Another chapter done. We got to see a bit into the back story of Annabeth, and some foreshadowing for the future of this story ;) I really wanted to hold the first percabeth moment until chapter 5, but I couldn't. So here it is. It's not going to be one of those stories where they hate each other, or it's love at first sight. It's gonna build. But tell me how I did on it. Ik this chapter is a bit late, but it didn't feel finished last weekend so I had to add some more. The next chapter will still probably come next weekend (I'll try my best). Anyways, thank you all for reading my story, and pleeeease review. It makes me really happy to be able to hear y'all talk to me about my work. Thanks for everything, and peace out


	4. Prologue: Piper

Prologue

Piper POV

Piper grunted as she stacked the next box. She heaved a breath. "Five-minute break," she thought. To anyone else working, "break" would mean sit, relax, check your phone, maybe have a snack. But to Piper, it was time to cram in as much Geometry homework as she could. Her break was actually supposed to be fifteen minutes long but she could afford to lose that time, literally. Normal people get paid by the hour, but Piper got paid by the amount of work she put in. And she was fine with it. Doing twice the work as anyone else, meant she got twice the pay, which she needed.

Piper didn't come from a poor family. They were actually quite well off. But that changed. That one fateful day. Piper remembered it like it was yesterday. But it had been a year since her dad had been diagnosed with cancer. Her life had changed drastically since then. Now she arrived to work before everyone else and left past midnight.

Piper checked her watch. Four minutes. She shrugged. A minute less of rest wouldn't kill her. She grunted as she heaved herself off the sword and

Piper worked through the night. She lost track of time. After all, who needs time when you've got boxes to stack and sort.

Piper was broken out of her box-stacking trance when she heard a voice behind her.

"Your shift ended an hour ago."

"My shift ends when I decide it does" Piper replied

"Come on, Pipes. Live a little."

Piper decided to ignore the voice and continued to stack boxes.

"I visited him"

Piper immediately turned around.

"Annabeth! Is he okay?" She blurted.

"No." Annabeth replied.

"WHAT?!" Piper replied. Suddenly thoughts of her father popped up in her mind. She thought about what horrible things could have happened to him. What if he… he…

"You didn't let me finish. I meant no, as in no, I didn't actually visit him. I just needed to get your attention." Annabeth replied with a playboy smirk on her face.

Piper let out a breath that she didn't know shad had been holding. And then promptly threw the box next to her at Annabeth.

"Not funny" Piper pouted.

"It got your attention, so it worked." Annebeth replied, still smirking. "I'll finish your work. You should check on him."

"But…" Piper protested

"My uncle's store, my rules." Annabeth replied, shutting her down.

"Thanks Annie" Piper replied.

"No need to thank me, you're just too hard on yourself sometimes." Annabed said.

Piper gave Annabeth one last smile, turned and walked away.

LINE BREAK

Piper walked into the hospital.

"Can I help you young lady?" the lady at the register said.

"No thanks, I know the room." Piper replied.

"You must come here often." The lady guessed.

"You don't know the half of it," Piper said with a sad smile.

Piper walked to the elevator and pressed the up button. As the elevator opened Piper stepped in. Lost in her own thoughts, Piper barely noticed the music as the elevator, well, elevated. SHe had been in this exact elevator more than a hundred times now. She practically knew everything about it, the small dent in the wall behind her, how the music was always Adele or Justin Timberlake, everything. She would always reflect on herself in this elevator. Last time she had realized that the money needed for the treatment would only increase, and she started longer hours of work. This elevator was really the only place where she had the time or will to do whatever she wanted.

Piper felt a tap on her shoulder. She snapped out of her trance realizing that it was her floor. She smiled gratefully at the woman next to her, and stepped out of the elevator, watching it rise away. The elevator rides were always too short. She sighed and focused on the task at hand: seeing her father.

Piper opened the door. There was her father, Tristan McLean, lying there, looking miserable.

"Hey Dad…" Piper started.

"Pipes!" her dad exclaimed hoarsely. "Come here!"

Piper smiled with relief. Her dad certainly wasn't fine physically, but emotionally, he was. His excitement gave Piper a sense of comfort that was relieving. She ran over and gave her dad a big hug.

"How's school and grades?" Her dad asked eagerly.

"I'm getting all A's" Piper said proudly, feeling almost like a child again, in the presence of her father.

"Hopefully you aren't overworking yourself. Annabeth said that you had extended your hours." Tristan inquired.

So Annabeth had visited her father. That girl did too much for her.

"No dad. We need all the money that we can get after all." Piper replied.

"I refuse" Tristan protested "you must lower your hours. I can't ask for you to…"

"Dad it's fine." Piper reassured. "We can talk about that later if we need to."

"Fine" her dad submitted. "Are there any guys that I should know about?"

"Haha dad, very funny" Piper said.

At that point, her dad's doctor walked in.

"Mr McLean please take some rest now," the doctor ordered.

"You heard her Pipes. Goodnight sweetheart." Tristan said, and passed out onto his pillow.

"Night dad." Piper said sweetly.

Piper turned to leave, but was interrupted.

"You are his daughter, right?" the doctor asked.

"Uhm yes?" Piper replied.

"There are a few things that you should know" the doctor said with a neutral tone.

"Good or bad?" Piper asked

"Unfortunately bad. The treatment's cost is going to double from now on, due to your dad's conditioning worsening. Would you like to know the new chance for your dad's survival?" the doctor asked.

"No, please," Piper said.

"State law requires me to tell you," the doctor said. "Two percent. Have a good day."

The doctor turned and left.

Piper was shocked. Two percent. Surely this couldn't be happening. This must've been a nightmare. Or something. She pinched herself. She didn't wake up. She was already awake. Realization dawned on her. Her breaths grew heavy. It was difficult to breathe. The world started spinning around her. The walls seemed to close in as her breathing grew more rapid. "RUN PIPER, RUN" a voice in her head screamed. Piper heaved in another breath and struggled to the door. She threw it open and ran out of the hospital, voices screaming in her head, the world spinning.

She ran until she couldn't. She collapsed in some random alleyway. And cried. And cried and cried and cried. All of the emotions that she had bottled up, the long nights and lonely days, everything came out as she cried. Slowly, she felt consciousness slip away, as she passed out.

LINE BREAK

Piper slowly awoke, hearing footsteps behind her.

"Well, look who we have here" Piper heard behind her.

She turned to see five twenty-something men walking towards her with maniacal grins.

"We're gonna have fun today, boys!" The man said.

Too late, Piper had realized what was about to happen. As she tried to escape, two men caught her arms.

"Help, please" Piper cried feebly. She closed her eyes, bracing for the worst.

But it never came.

"Are you okay?" A voice called.

Piper opened her eyes to see all five men on the ground, and a boy about her age with blonde hair and blue eyes standing in front of her with an arm outstretched.

AN: Piper's got a hard life. And so do I so it took a while to finish this one. I had a lot of stuff going on and writer's block sucks, but I'm back and so is the story. I'm really excited about where this story will go and I hope y'all are too. I've got it mostly planned out by now but If y'all have any suggestions for this story too, that would be really cool. The story will start to get a bit dark soon so just letting y'all know. Next chapter I'm gonna have to give Percy some more love cuz the first chapter was really short. Hopefully, this one will be up in two weeks but you never know, it might even be a week so check often. In the meantime reviews cuz they make my day better. Until next time, Atomic Rush out.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Percy POV

Percy trudged through the dark night sky, hands in his pockets, head in the clouds. He looked over his shoulder. The glistening sky of New York City lay behind him. A gentle breeze swept over his face. He reached back and pulled off his hood, letting the breeze sweep through his hair. Central Park was unusually vacant today, so he had decided to stroll. In today's day and age, with so much work and stress, one needs to take their time to relax, enjoy the small things in life. Too many people keep on stressing about their problems.

And Percy is one of them. "SHIT!" Percy screamed as he saw the time. It was "poker time" now. He was too worried about what would happen when he got home.

He had promised himself that he wouldn't be late again, but, well, the past was in the past.

He sprinted out of the park.

Percy collapsed right outside of his door. He checked his watch. Nine minutes. Two minutes slower than last time. Percy groaned. He was screwed. Percy took a deep breath … and opened the door.

The first thing that hit Percy was the stench. The smell of liquor was overpowering. But he was used to it. It happened every night. The thing that hit him, was the realization that Gabe was losing. That was bad for everyone involved. Percy got mad that Gabe was wasting Sally's hard-earned money. Gabe got mad that he was losing. It was a lose-lose scenario. But Percy still had to get through one more sensation. Gabe grouchily got up and walked toward him.

The third thing that hit Percy was Gabe's fist. And it hit him again, and again, and again. By this point, Percy was coughing up blood.

"YOU CAME LATE WITH MY LIFEGUARDING MONEY" Gabe spat, punching Percy once again.

Percy coughed and somehow mustered up the audacity to mutter "You mean my lifeguarding money?"

That got him two punches, and - Gabe's specialty - a kick square in the chest. Percy flew backward before crashing into his mom's favorite vase. Percy winced in pain as he felt the glass enter his back.

"That'll teach you not to mess with my money. Now fork it over."

Instead of waiting like a normal human being Gabe then ripped the money out of his pocket and walked away.

Percy slunk back into his room and walked to the mirror. He took a long look at himself.

"Not as bad as last time" Percy shrugged.

Percy winced in pain as he walked back to his bed. He pulled out his phone. The picture of his mom on his lock screen burst to life as he turned his phone on.

"I should call her," Percy thought aloud. He unlocked his phone and scrolled through his phone. His finger hovered over "Mom".

"No," Percy said as he scrolled down to Jason, "If she came she'd have to face him too" Percy clicked dial.

Jason picked up after the second ring. "So now you want to hang out?" Jason accused. "I thought that you were too busy with lifeguarding?" he mocked.

"No, Jace," Percy muttered. "I need help. Come through my window."

"Has Gabe been…" Jason started.

"No, I … uhm ... ran into a vase?" Percy attempted pathetically.

"Suuure," Jason replied. "I'll be there in five"

"Thanks," Percy said as he hung up.

Percy stopped the timer as Jason climbed through his window. "6 minutes," he said. "You're late."

"I literally ran a mile to get to your house," Jason said, exasperated. "Plus the time it took to change… that was probably the fastest mile I've run in my life."

"Well… it wasn't fast enough!" Percy teased. "You see this here? Six minutes. You said - and I quote - 'I'll be there in five.'"

Jason ignored this comment. "Lemme see it," Jason said and then proceeded to pull out a huge first aid kit out of seemingly nowhere.

"Damn! Boy Scout much?" Percy remarked.

"Shuddup!" Jason exclaimed as he pulled out an ice pack. "Put this on your bruises and rotate cold and heat every ninety seconds." He explained as he gave the pack to him. "And I know you wouldn't call me for just a bruise…" Jason started.

"Really?" Percy said, sarcasm oozing from his voice. "And what gave you that idea?"

"I used my expert detective skills to figure out that a certain vase is missing from your house." Jason grinned.

"And how exactly did you figure that out, without exiting this room?" Percy said.

"I...uhm...used my x-ray vision!" Jason exclaimed.

"Suuure," Percy said. "I guess being blonde superman has its perks." He teased.

"Whatever" Jason said. "Let's get to the bathroom to clean out those wounds."

"Okay, Doctor Grace," Percy laughed and got up.

Percy noticed Jason's smile fade as he looked at the chair that Percy had been sitting on.

"Percy," Jason started. "The chair. Its…"

"Bloody," Percy said. "I know."

"Percy, it's really bloody," Jason said. "Let's go, now. We need to get you cleaned up right away. I knew Gabe was bad, but...not this bad."

"This isn't bad," Percy dismissed. "I actually got pretty lucky today."

"Lucky!" Jason exclaimed as they entered the bathroom. "Percy! You put up with this? You should call the cops!"

"That's exactly why I can't call you some days," Percy explained. "I know you would call them because it looks really bad, but trust me, it isn't." Percy took off his shirt. "Don't you have to operate on me, Doctor?"

Jason sighed and pulled out a pair of gloves, some tweezers, gauze pads, and disinfectant. Percy turned around and heard Jason groan. "Well, you know, ya might want to start, then," Percy snickered.

"You're lucky I'm a great friend," Jason remarked.

Percy's reply was cut off as he felt a piece of glass leave his back and winced.

"Well, it's gonna be a while … so, got anything interesting to talk about?" Jason said. "Tryouts went great. I think that coach likes me. But there's this other guy. Coach Z. He's… different. Cold. Calculative. I feel like I've seen him somewhere else though…"

"Usually, when someone asks a question, they wait for the other person to answer him," Percy said. Percy couldn't see it, but he was sure that Jason was red right now. Percy had always called him a shape-shifting tomato, but when he turned "red" he actually turned red.

"Fine. You tell your story." a flustered Jason replied.

"So… you know how I was lifeguarding?" Percy asked.

"Yeah," Jason said.

"So after most of the people cleared out I started packing my things and started out to leave, but then I saw this girl talking to her mom. Her mom was screaming at her to finish something and she was just trying to get out for a bit and just live life. So I stood up for her, told her mom to book it." Percy explained.

"Whoa Percy," Jason exclaimed. "Never thought of you as the 'knight in shining armor' type."

"Nah that's more you," Percy replied nonchalantly.

"Whatever," Jason replied. "Does this mystery girl have a name?"

"Annabeth," Percy said.

TIME SKIP - FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL (To those of you confused, the AN explains all of the skipping around in time.)

Goode High School. The location of his torture for the next four years.

"It's probably not going to be that bad," He heard from behind him.

Percy turned to see Jason. "Damn, thinking out loud again. Nice to see ya Jace."

"Yeah, yeah," Jason replied. "Let's get our schedules"

"Thanks a lot for acknowledging my presence," Percy replied sarcastically before running after him.

Percy ran into the building and found the cafeteria. He saw Jason talking to a woman: presumably a counselor at a table with stacks of what appeared to be schedules. He searched around until he found the table labeled "J".

"Welcome to Goode, young man." A man greeted Percy. "Last name?"

"Jackson" Percy replied.

"Well, Mr. Jackson, I shall find your schedule." The man replied. The man found his schedule and proceeded to glance over his schedule before saying "It seems that you're trying out for the swim team this year. Well then, I'm Coach Parks, head coach of the Goode swim team." he said as he handed Percy his schedule.

"Wha… I didn't…" Percy started, but was cut off.

"Next" Coach Parks said.

Percy looked at the bottom of his schedule. Sure enough, last period was swim. There could only be one culprit to this crime. "Jay-son!" Percy cursed. This got him a couple of stares, but, for all Percy knew, a hurricane could blow through the room, and he wouldn't notice. He was dead focused on finding his target.

Percy caught up with Jason in the hallway. "What the hell is this?" Percy yelled, thrusting his schedule into Jason's face.

"Oh, nice! You took swim like I told you to." Jason said with a straight face.

"Very, nice technique." Percy commented. "I almost fell for it. If not for the fact that I showed you the page with the school rules, not my schedule." To emphasise his point he turned back to the schedule. "What do you have to say about this?" Percy said pointing to swimming on his schedule.

"Swimming Boys. You'd think that they would come up with a better name for the swim team." Jason replied. "Swimming Boys sounds like a really bad rock band, or an elderly guys synchronized swim class."

"You know that's not what I'm talking about" Percy said.

"If it makes you feel better, I'm in Soccer Boys." Jason offered.

"You've been practicing that part since you put me in swimming, right?" Percy asked.

"First, It's Swimming _Boys_, and Second … yeah." Jason admitted.

"Why." Percy demanded.

"Because you are super talented, and you need to stop letting your fear of Gabe control your life." Jason replied. "That and I didn't take coding class last summer for nothing."

"Coding? More like hacking." Percy complained. "And you hacked the school server. You could get into serious trouble for that."

"You underestimate me." Jason flaunted. "I did take a hacking… I mean coding class this summer."

"Whatever. Let me see that schedule." Percy said as he snatched Jason's schedule away from him.

Jason Grace - Freshman - Goode High School

1A: Theatre Arts 1

2A: Biology

3A: History

4A: Soccer Boys

1B: English 1

2B: Math

3B: Spanish 1

4B: Soccer Boys

"Cool!" Percy exclaimed. "We have…" Percy started before realizing that he had never checked his schedule.

"Bio, History, English, and Spanish together." Jason finished, handing Percy's schedule back to him.

Percy checked it.

Perseus Jackson - Freshman - Goode High School

1A: Math

2A: Biology

3A: History

4A: Swimming Boys

1B: English 1

2B: Art 1

3B: Spanish 1

4B: Swimming Boys

Percy checked the time. 5 minutes till the bell. "We'd better get going, then." Percy said. "I guess I'll be seeing you second period."

"I guess you'll be seeing me second period." Jason agreed. "See ya then." He said and then turned and left.

Percy turned around and tried to find his way to math before the bell.

Percy ran into math just as the bell rang. The teacher walked up to him.

"Hi." She said, "My name is Ms. Harper. You must be Perseus Jackson. Is that name alright, or is there any other name that you'd go by."

"Just Percy is fine." Percy said.

"Okay Percy. Usually I allow my students to choose their seats, but since you came last you will take the remaining seat, okay?"

"Okay" Percy replied.

"Good to hear." Ms. Harper said. "You'll be sitting over there, next to…" She said as she pointed.

Percy turned to where her finger was pointing. There he saw a pair of familiar gray eyes staring back at him.

"... Annabeth."

AN: Hey guys. Finally got this chapter done. I know it was long overdue, but I had some writers block, and after that, I got a bit busy. Even if it takes forever for me to write a chapter (cuz I'm new and slow) I will finish this story if its the last thing that I'll do.

Anyways, moving on to story stuff-IMPORTANT READ THIS PART- The first and first part of the second chapter take place in 8th grade. The second half of the second chapter (due to summer tryouts) and the third chapter take place in the summer before ninth grade. The fourth chapter takes place on the last day of summer. This chapter starts on the last day of summer and ends on the first day of school(duh). And the next chapter will pick up from the time skip in this chapter(AKA at Percy's house). Got it? Hopefully. Sorry its really complicated, but there were a few things that I didn't plan out beforehand because I'm a dummy.

Anyways, thanks for all the reviews. They really make my day, so thanks. For the questions, I'll try and answer them, but I cannot reply to guest reviews. If I feel they are important to the story, I'll answer them here in the AN. Responding to a guest's review, the rest of the seven and nico will not play a major role in this story, but you can expect to see them. As for Thalia...nothing is certain, but I have some ideas. With that, my AN concludes, thanks so much y'all, for sticking with my story, review, do whatever else you have to do, and see y'all next time (Hopefully, threeish weeks but take it with a grain of salt).


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Jason POV

"See ya later Perce," Jason said.

"See ya tomorrow, you mean?" Percy questioned.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Jason replied. "Take care of yourself. I'd hate to come back to patch you up again tonight." With that, Jason smirked ignoring the protest of Percy behind him. Walked to the window, flashed Percy a peace sign behind him, and jumped. He had made this jump multiple times before. But something about it made him feel at home. He didn't know whether it was the adrenaline rushing through his body, or the fact that he felt like he was flying.

He loved it. But the best part of it? Jason stuck the landing every time. "Showoff," he heard Percy call. He smirked, stood up, dusted off his pants and started his trek home.

He took about twenty minutes to make it back home. It was long, considering that he had just made the same trip in six minutes a few hours back. You couldn't blame him, though. The night was beautiful, and the peaceful breeze let him think. Think about everything that had recently transpired. Jason got dumped, again. Then he had aced tryouts, even Coach Z was impressed. Jason made a mental note to figure out who Coach Z actually was, and why he felt so familiar.

Then Percy got an admirer in that Chase girl (totally not fair to Jason). And he got beaten up again. So, yeah, interesting last few days. These were the thoughts running through Jason Grace's head as he reached his house.

Jason decided to play it safe and climb through the window. He loved his parents, but he didn't want to risk getting in trouble the day before school started. So, to his parents, Jason was asleep and had been since he left for Percy's. Jason managed to scuffle up to his window using the trash can as a boost.

Jason entered to face a surprised Samantha in his room. "May I ask… what were you doing in my room?"

"May I ask… what were you doing out for so long?" Sam quickly recovered.

"Patching up Percy," Jason said nonchalantly.

"No, really," Sam asked.

"Really," Jason said.

Sam shrugged. "Doesn't surprise me. Did he run into the pole again?"

"Uhm… yeah," Jason said.

Sam rolled her eyes.

"So what were you doing in my room?" Jason asked.

"Well, mom and dad are… having a dispute." Sam said. "My room's the closest so I can hear everything, and it's really annoying. So I came here."

"What are they arguing about?" Jason asked.

"Politics," Sam said smoothly.

"Mom doesn't even know the president's name," Jason said. "What were they really arguing about?"

"Local politics," Sam said.

"You know, Samantha, I am actually quite well versed in local politics," Jason said airily. "I'm sure that mom and dad wouldn't mind me join their discussion," Jason said as he walked to the door.

"There is no need for that," Sam said. "Why don't we talk about it?"

"Last chance, Sam," Jason said. "What's going on. Tell me, or I will enlighten myself by joining mom and dad's political conversation."

"Politics, Jason, but it doesn't involve you," Sam said.

"Okay," Jason said. "So you chose the second option

"Jason, no" Sam pleaded.

Ignoring her, Jason opened the door and walked down the hallway.

"You know my situation" Jason heard dad say. "The company might have to lay me off. If they do, I don't think I'll be able to support Jason anymore."

Jason sensed Sam behind him. He clamped his hand against her mouth before she could say anything.

"But he's our son," That was Jason's mom.

Sam started struggling and screaming into his hand but he held firm.

"He's your son."

"So you'll just abandon him?"

"I didn't mean it like that… but…"

Jason had heard enough.

He released his hand on Sam's mouth and started walking back to his room.

"Jason wait!" Sam called from behind him.

He didn't stop. Not until he reached the window. "How long?" He asked.

"Have I known? Five years," Sam said sadly.

"And you didn't think of telling me? Not once?" Jason asked.

"I didn't want, well, this to happen," Sam said. "Please don't go,"

"Sorry," Jason said.

Jason jumped back out of the window. He felt the rush in his face. He even stuck the landing. But he didn't care.

Jason strolled through the dark streets of New York. To where? He didn't know. He just kept walking. He wasn't that mad. He just needed time to think. He knew that his dad, his stepdad, wouldn't abandon him like that. He tended to speak his mind without restriction. Jason wasn't really worried about that. Jason was worried about his father, his biological father. Who was he? What happened? Why did he leave? These were the types of thoughts that ran through Jason's mind.

After a while, Jason realized that he wasn't getting anywhere. He decided to walk back. After all, he had kind of overreacted back at his house.

Jason turned around. Just as he was about to start walking back, he heard a voice behind him.

"Help, please" It cried feebly.

Jason turned and sprinted towards the voice. He turned left into an alleyway and saw a sight that made his blood boil. Five guys surrounding a defenseless girl.

Jason wasted no time springing into action. He rushed at the closest guy, probably their leader, and threw a chop at his neck. The guy collapsed like a ragdoll but the rest of them noticed his presence. Two of them rushed at them while the other two held the girl. Jason took a better look at the girl. She had tanned skin and choppy brown hair. Her eyes were shut so she couldn't tell what they looked like. He was snapped out of his thoughts as one of the guys threw a hook at his face. Jason ducked under it as the guy ran past him. Jason turned and thrust a palm into his back flooring him. The other guy came up to him fists up. Jason smirked. He might've actually been a challenge unlike the other two. Jason threw a jab at him, testing him. The guy blocked it. Jason pivoted his feet and threw a kick at him. The guy blocked it again. Jason smiled and let his guard down, walking past him.

"Brett, let's go," The guy behind Jason said.

"What?" The guy, Brett asked.

"I said let's go," The guy repeated.

"But…"

"Now,"

The guys holding the girl reluctantly let go of her and walked past Jason. Sensing that something was wrong, Jason turned and caught a punch directed at his face from 'Brett'. Jason scowled at him and used his other hand to clock the guy in the face. Hard. As the guy crumpled to the floor, he turned to the guy next to him.

"May I be of service to you?" Jason asked.

"No," The guy said cowering in fear. He turned to the guy that Jason fought earlier and asked "But why did you let him go? You blocked both of his attacks."

The guy just held up the arm that he had used to block Jason's kick. It was swollen bad.

"Scram," Jason scowled as they grabbed their friends and ran off.

Jason turned to the girl. She still had her eyes squeezed shut. She probably hadn't noticed Jason beat the crap out of those guys. "Are you alright?" He asked softly. He held out a hand to her as she opened her eyes. His eyes met hers as his heart skipped a beat. There were butterflies in his stomach. Her eyes. He couldn't tell what color they were. They were always changing like a kaleidoscope. Jason snapped himself out of his trance and slowly helped her up.

"Thank you so much," She said. "I don't know what I would do without you. I would've been… Oh. Where are my manners? I'm Piper," She choked out.

She was clearly holding back tears, and she looked like she had been crying a lot. She was also a bit hysterical. Overall, her mental state seemed terrible. Something must have happened. Before the guys. She had to have a reason to come to an alleyway and cry. Keeping all of this in mind, Jason made a decision. His parents would have to wait a bit longer for him.

"I'm Jason," he said. "You're coming with me.

Piper let out a small gasp and took a step back.

Jason, realizing that he had screwed up his word choice quickly corrected himself "No. Sorry, that's not what I meant. I meant let's find somewhere better than this to talk."

"Thank you for your help but I should really get going," Piper sniffled.

"I'm putting my foot down I insist," Jason said. "In return for saving you."

"Okay," Piper said.

Jason turned and looked around. He found an empty park bench about a hundred feet away from him.

"Let's go there," Jason said.

As they started walking Jason realized how tired Piper really was. About ten feet through she started leaning on him. Jason was really glad that he didn't let her go home. She probably would have collapsed well within a mile. This just made Jason more curious to what happened to him. As they reached the bench he helped her down before plopping down next to her.

As he looked at her she refused to meet his eyes, sniffling and shivering. "So what happened?" Jason asked slowly. "I know something happened, and you'll feel better if you talk about it. I might even be able to help you with…"

Without warning, Piper burst into tears and buried her head into Jason's chest, taking him by surprise. Jason sat in shock for a good minute. Recovering his wits, he slowly put his arms around her and rubbed her back.

It seemed like forever until Piper finally calmed down, but Jason held her the whole time. He looked down and realized that she had fallen asleep on his chest. Jason didn't know why, but he felt like he needed to find out what had happened to her, and fix it. For now, though, she was asleep on him, and he didn't want to wake her up. He didn't know where she lived, so there was only one option. He sighed and gently picked her up.

Jason could've only imagined how shocked his mom was when he showed up at his door carrying a sleeping girl.

"What the hell happened?!" She asked.

"It's a long story mom," Jason said. "I'll explain tomorrow."

"Jason you're too young to be…" His mom started.

"No, mom I didn't do that," Jason said slightly flustered. "Do we have an extra bed?"

"Sorry, but we don't," His mom replied.

"Since Percy sleeps here so often, I have a huge bed," Jason started.

"Jason," His mom said staring at him dead in the eye.

"Mom, you know me," Jason said. "I wouldn't do anything."

"Alright, go," She said. "But you owe me an explanation tomorrow."

Jason smiled gratefully. His mom turned and left as Jason made his way to the stairs, Piper still in hand. He trudged up the stairs and walked through the hall to his room. As he entered he found his window closed. 'Sam must've shut it,' he thought. He layed Piper on the bed. He tried to get up, but he found himself unable to. He looked at Piper and realized that her hands were still clasped tightly around his neck. He tried to pry them off but unable. Jason realized that he was growing tired too. Jason looked at Piper again. He found himself smiling. "Piper," he said to himself still smiling. "I think I like her." With that, Jason collapsed onto the bed, right next to her.

AN: It's been a while guys, but I'm glad I finished this chapter today. The reason I've been taking so long to update is that I've been working on my new story called Kalos University and it's about Pokemon. I really like the story so far and y'all should check it out if that's your cup of tea. Anyways, I got the first Jasper scene done. I think I did well, but y'all can review and give me any tips, suggestions, etc. That being said, It's gonna be a bit before my next update cuz I have to update my other story first. My next chapter will probably be Piper POV because I feel like I have to finish this part off and get my jumbled timeline correct. Until then, thanks so much for keeping with my story, and see y'all next time.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Piper POV

Piper slowly started to wake up. She had gained a level of conscience but still didn't want to open her eyes. She didn't remember much about what happened last night and wanted to keep it that way for as long as she could. She could tell that she was in a comfy bed. It was especially cozy and warm, for some reason, but Piper wasn't complaining. Piper wanted to stay in this state for as long as she could, but she knew she had to get to school. As much as she didn't want to be late for the first day, she didn't want to leave wherever she was. 'Five more minutes,' She decided. But the five minutes didn't last long.

"Aaaaaaaaahhhhh!" A scream blared through the air.

"Annabeth?" Piper mumbled. She opened her eyes. It wasn't Annabeth. A blonde girl about her age with blue eyes was pointing at Piper screaming in fear. Piper frowned. Surely she wasn't that hideous. Piper took the moment to observe the room. It was painted sky blue. As she looked to the bed she was sleeping on, she realized why it was so 'warm and comfy'. A guy about her age was lying next to her, his face red. Piper realized that she had her arms around him. Piper's felt her face get hot as she let go of him and scrambled to the corner of the bed.

A thousand questions were running through her brain. As the events from last night came flooding back to her about fifty of them were answered. Okay, that was an understatement, but quite a few questions remained. Did Jason... Piper internally shuddered thinking about it. Piper didn't think that Jason would do that, but she had to look at the facts. She woke up next to him in a bed that she didn't remember getting into. The girl, probably Jason's sister, apparently thought the same thing.

"I can't believe you would do that, Jason!" The girl exclaimed.

"Sam it's not what it looks like," Jason pleaded.

The girl's expression did a 180. "Whatever, but I'm not for the record, I have no connection to this event," Sam said as she yawned and walked out of the room shutting the door on her way out.

That left a pretty awkward silence in the room.

Jason turned to her.

"Uhm, hey Piper," He said scratching the back of his head.

"Where am I?" Piper demanded.

"My place," Jason said. "I'm sorry, but you fell asleep last night and I couldn't just leave you there. You didn't tell me anything about yourself back there so I had nowhere to take you. So I carried you to my house," He said sheepishly.

"Did you..." Piper started.

"No! I would never," Jason said. "You can check the sheets and..."

"You would never?" Piper asked slightly smirking. She had made up her mind about him. He would never, just like he said. So Piper took this opportunity to tease him. "Never ever? Even if I wanted it? Am I that ugly?" Piper pretended to start weeping.

"No! That's not..." Jason started.

"So you did!" Piper said accusingly. It took all of her focus to keep her from laughing.

"No I...arghhhh!" He grumbled.

Jason looked so flustered, that Piper couldn't hold back. She burst out laughing.

"Uhm... what?" Jason asked.

"Your...face..." Piper choked out. "I was just messing with you."

The red on Jason's face vanished. "I guess I deserved that," He said smiling. "Percy must be watching from somewhere laughing at me."

"Huh?" Piper said.

"I'm usually the guy that does stuff like that to my friend, Percy," Jason said.

Piper smirked and stifled a laugh. "It looks like Percy owes me, then." She looked up at the clock on the wall and saw the time. "Shoot. I have to go home to get ready for school. Thanks for everything." Piper turned and started to walk out of the room.

"Wait!" Jason said.

Piper turned.

"Do you happen to go to Goode?"

* * *

That was how Piper found herself in her first restaurant since 'the incident' with her dad. Jason had offered to take her to breakfast on him. She wanted to refuse, to be polite, but she would die for some pancakes and she did want to get to know Jason more. He clearly was a very caring person and let Piper, a stranger to him, let loose all of her emotional baggage out. She hadn't told him about anything yet, but she still felt better. That plus the fact that pancakes were great.

"So, uhm, how's life?" Jason asked awkwardly.

"Seriously, Jason," Piper said holding back a laugh. "You ask a girl out and the best thing you can say is 'how's life'?"

"Yeah," Jason said. "I want to know. Seems like somethings been bothering you. I know that we don't know each other that well yet, but if there's anything I can do to help, I would love to know."

Piper was taken aback. She had expected them to just hangout. But instead, he had gone for the elephant in the room.

"Uhm I..." Piper paused. She didn't know how to say this. Or if she even should say this.

"A number 22 and 13 for y'all?" Piper looked up, thankful to be saved by the waitress. As she saw the waitress, her thankfulness was replaced by a newfound horror. Annabeth, in all her glory, was looking down at them.

Piper sputtered. Jason saved her.

"Yeah," He said.

Annabeth looked between the two and then handed Piper her pancakes. The worst came as Piper feared it.

"My name's Annabeth," She said. "Yours?" Annabeth handed Jason his plate.

"Jason?" Jason said confused.

"You don't sound too sure about that," Annabeth said with a laugh. "Well, you two enjoy those pancakes and your...date...and I'll be back to check on you in a sec." She said with a wink.

"That was weird," Jason said once she was out of earshot. "It was like she knew us or something. You don't know her, do you?"

"O...of course not," Piper said, her bluff pretty apparent.

Apparently Jason hadn't noticed, though as he continued. "Come to think of it, you did say something like 'Annabeth?' when Sam gave you the rude arousal. Are you sure you don't know her?" Jason asked.

Piper didn't answer as she was too busy focused on the approaching Annabeth, wearing a devilish grin.

Annabeth slid into the booth next to Piper with a "Scooch". Annabeth grabbed Piper's fork and tore off a piece of one of her pancakes. "So how did you meet Piper, Jason?" She said before eating the pancake slice.

Jason looked at Piper in disbelief. Piper's face flushed red, and she turned, pretending to observe the painting on the wall.

Annabeth brushed the crumbs off her mouth with a napkin and swallowed. "You didn't tell him that we knew each other Pipes?" Annabeth said in mock surprise.

Jason looked bewildered. He turned to Piper with a 'you lied?' look.

"Uh, sorry, Jason," Piper said. "This is Annabeth, but you already know that. She's my..."

"Girlfriend," Annabeth cut her off. "I'm her girlfriend."

Piper's face turned red. She saw Jason made a face of disappointment before covering it a second later. "She's my best friend, not my girlfriend," she said to Jason quickly before glaring at Annabeth.

"Oh," Jason said with a bit of relief on his face.

"You didn't answer my question, Jason," Annabeth asked. She gestured to Piper and then Jason. "How'd y'all meet?"

Jason looked at her for a second. "I heard from a friend that abandoned alleys were beautiful at night. Guess Piper heard the same thing."

Annabeth snickered. "I approve," she said to Piper. "He's got good sarcasm. So did you see your dad?" Annabeth stopped and looked at Jason as if she didn't know if this conversation was his ears.

"Yeah," Piper said, seemingly surprising Annabeth.

"Good news or bad news?" Annabeth asked while warily looking at Jason.

Piper looked at Annabeth, and then Jason. Jason looked back at Piper, his emotions unreadable. "Bad," she said.

Annabeth looked at Piper. "What actually happened in the alley?"

Piper sighed. "His conditions worse. I couldn't bring myself to stay once I found out so I ran away. Passed out in the alleyway. Found by some thugs. Luckily Jason found me not a minute too soon. He doesn't pull his punches." She smirked for a second at that before her face returned to a passive state. "I was gonna leave, but he didn't let me. Probably for the best because I would've collapsed after twenty steps. Then I passed out on top of him. And woke up at his house in the guest room." Annabeth didn't need to know everything, and she would've ripped Jason apart if she found out. "And then he took me to breakfast. So here we are. Happy?"

Annabeth looked at Piper and then Jason. "Thanks for helping Piper," She said.

"No need to thank me," Jason said. "I would do it a hundred times over if I had to." He said looking at Piper.

Piper's face started to flush so she pulled out her phone and pretended to check it to disguise it. Good thing she checked because school started in ten minutes. "We have to go," she said as she showed Annabeth and Jason the time.

Annabeth took another bite of Piper's pancake, while Jason packed his to go. Piper realized that she hadn't ate yet and stole the fork from Annabeth and ate a pancake as fast as she could before they ran out of the diner determined to get to Goode.

* * *

"Thanks," Piper said to the teacher that had handed her schedule to her. She looked around and saw Jason in line to get his schedule and Annabeth talking to some teacher. Seeing as she had time, she decided to check her schedule.

Piper McLean - Freshman - Goode High School

1A: Theatre Arts 1

2A: Biology

3A: Spanish 1

4A: Physical Education

1B: English 1

2B: Math

3B: History

4B: Broadcast

The schedule was torn out of her hands right as she finished by an eager Annabeth who shoved another schedule back at her. Piper glanced over it.

Annabeth Chase - Freshman - Goode High School

1A: Math

2A: Biology

3A: Spanish 1

4A: Track Girls

1B: English 1

2B: Art 1

3B: History

4B: Track Girls

"We have four classes together," Annabeth said. "That's really lucky."

"I know," Piper said smiling.

"Hey," Jason said as he walked up to them. "Here's mine," he said as he handed it to Piper. 

Jason Grace - Freshman - Goode High School

1A: Theatre Arts 1

2A: Biology

3A: History

4A: Soccer Boys

2A: English 1

2B: Math

3B: Spanish 1

4B: Soccer Boys

"That's nice," Piper said. "We have..."

"JAY-SON!" A scream echoed through the halls.

"Shoot," Jason said. "Percy must've found out."

"Percy?" Annabeth said.

"Found out what?" Piper asked.

"I may or may not have hacked into the school database to change his course requests," Jason said sheepishly.

"What?" Piper said. "Why?"

"Cuz I, crap he's coming this way. I have to go, see you at lunch?" Jason asked.

"Sure," Piper said smiling."

Jason waved to them and dashed away.

Piper smiled back at him. Jason would be an interesting person to be around. 'Maybe this high school won't be so bad after all,' She thought.

But boy, would she be wrong.

* * *

AN:

Hey guys, I finally got this chapter out. I'm sorry it took so long but it will hopefully speed up in a bit. Right now I have been working on my other story a bit more because this one has almost twice the amount of chapters as the other one. I will equal it out soon, though so don't worry. Its also been taking me a bit longer to write these chapters cuz I am a bit slow writing in general and exposition is especially slow and hard to write for me. Once the action picks up, (hopefully) chapters will start coming out faster. So Jason, Piper, and Annabeth have met and in the next chapter, school will start. I don't really have much else to say, so thanks so much for staying with this story and review for any questions or comments. See y'all soon!


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Annabeth POV

"Percy?" Annabeth asked. 'Percy. The kid on the subway, and at the pool. That Percy?' Annabeth thought. Annabeth broke out of her trance as she saw the form of Jason dashing away from them.

"Huh?" She started.

"I think I'll have to go now too, Annabeth," Piper said. "See you in second period."

"Yeah see you..." Annabeth said. 'Probably some other Percy' she thought as she set out to math.

Apparently math was on the other side of school so Piper ditching her had kind of saved her from a tardy. That fact didn't make her less salty though. Annabeth entered the room. To her left were a few rows of paired desks and to her right was a whiteboard with names on it. She groaned internally as she scanned the board for her name. Assigned seats were the worst. She either got paired with a totally antisocial person or a creep. She found her name and went to go sit at her desk. As she made her way to the back row, she plopped down into her seat, intentionally ignoring her partner. Annabeth crossed her fingers and waited a second. No sounds came from across her. Annabeth mentally sighed as she crossed out 'creep' off her list. Annabeth relaxed a bit. She knew the type of person sitting next to her. As Annabeth turned, she fully expected to see someone buried in a book. What she did not expect was sea-green eyes, messy black hair, and a pencil restlessly being tapped on a desk. Feeling a pair of eyes on him, her partner turned with a friendly smile.

"You're supposed to be a nerd," Annabeth blurted.

The guy looked at her and chuckled. "Sorry for not meeting your expectations," He said with a smile.

Annabeth mentally kicked herself. So much for a good introduction. She nervously looked back at him before doing a doubletake.

"Percy?" She said.

"The one and only," Percy said. "Didn't expect to meet you again today, nevertheless at Goode."

"Yeah," she muttered. "Sorry about that."

"It's fine," Percy said. "Annabeth."

Annabeth smiled. "I'm glad I got someone I at least know to sit next to. As long as you're good at math, this year will be a breeze. You are good at math right?"

Percy looked at her nervously. "Is being good at math required, or just recommended?"

Just as Annabeth was about to retort, the bell rang, and the teacher entered the room effectively ending their conversation.

"Hello, my name is Mrs. Dodds and I will be your math teacher this year," Mrs. Dodds said. "I know many teachers spend the first day on introductions, but I believe that they are a waste of time and, as such, we will begin our curriculum from the textbook located under your desks."

Annabeth looked and, indeed, there were two textbooks under her and Percy's desk. She grabbed one as Percy grabbed the other.

"Now turn to page one and complete the warmup questions," Mrs. Dodds said. "They will be easy, but don't worry they are only warm-up questions and the ones we do next will be much harder."

A majority of the class groaned. Annabeth just sighed and started her work.

The questions were, indeed, easy. All the warm-up questions were structured in the same form as the first: X+4=6. Annabeth blew through them within seconds. Popping her head up, she noticed that she was the first done. Slowly but steadily more and more heads began to pop up. The last of which was Percy. Annabeth nervously looked over at him. The slowest guy in class was her partner. Annabeth tried not to think much of it but it was still bothering her nevertheless.

"Now we shall try some practice problems on the board," Mrs. Dodds said. She wrote down a problem which Annabeth read as soon as she could. 3(X+4)=15. "Who can solve this problem?"

Annabeth raised her hand. It was an easy problem which she knew she would get right. No risks to go up. Mrs. Dodds looked at her and Annabeth prepared herself to go up to the board and answer the question.

"Mr. Jackson," Mrs. Dodds called.

Annabeth frowned. 'Why would she look at her and then call on someone on the opposite side of the room unless...'

Percy stood up.

'Of course,' Annabeth thought. 'Percy Jackson.' She smiled at the thought of his name. And then her smile did a 180 when she saw his still-open textbook. It was covered in doodles. Some of them were actually decent, but that wasn't the point. He hadn't even done a single question.

Annabeth looked up and chewed her lip as Percy made it to the front.

Mrs. Dodds cleared her throat. "Mr. Jackson would you please find X for us," she asked.

Percy put a finger to his chin and stood there staring at the problem as if he was deep in thought. For a second, Annabeth had regained an inkling of hope. There was a chance that Percy was just lazy, but could find the answers when he needed to.

After a good minute of thought, Percy spoke up.

"Found it," He said circling the 'X' and grinning at Annabeth as if he had won the Super Bowl.

Annabeth nearly dell out of her seat as the rest of the class laughed. One guy even hi-fived him. She had gotten her hopes up for nothing.

Percy trotted back up to their desk and smirked at Annabeth. Even though she was super frustrated, she couldn't manage to bring herself to tell Percy off fr some reason she couldn't figure out. She just chalked it up to him helping her the day before and not that she actually liked his knucklehead antics.

Mrs. Dodds, however, was completely fine with berating Percy. To the point at which one could argue that she actually enjoyed it.

"Mr. Jackson, in this a joke to you?" Mrs. Dodds said with a murderous glint in her eyes.

"Uhm... no?" Percy said genuinely confused. "You asked me to find 'X' and I did." This caused the class to laugh again.

While everyone else (excluding Mrs. Dodds) found Percy's antics funny, Annabeth felt like he was being genuine. Either way, she didn't know which one was worse.

Mrs. Dodds who was starting to turn red with anger called out "Talking back is not allowed in this class. Detention after school Mr. Jackson."

"What?" Percy said. "But I..."

"Actually, Mrs. Dodds, I'll answer the question," Annabeth said, shooting Percy a 'let me handle this' look. She didn't need Percy making his situation worse for himself.

"Alright, Ms. Chase," Mrs. Dodds said.

Annabeth stood up and walked to the board. She felt absolutely no pressure on her. She could have done this problem while sleeping.

"First you divide both sides by three," Annabeth said, "leaving X+4=5. From there you subtract two from each side leaving X=1."

"Well done, Mrs. Chase," Mrs. Dodds said but, for some reason, looked like she hated Annabeth as much as she did Percy. Annabeth shrugged it off and went back to her seat.

"Now we will finish the rest of the practice problems in pairs with the person situated next to you. Whatever you don't finish is homework. Get to work." Mrs. Dodds said.

Annabeth turned to Percy. "You do know how to solve these right?"

Percy looked at her totally serious. "Yeah. I just solved the one up on the board."

Annabeth groaned and looked away. "So you don't know how to do these problems. It's fine. Just copy off mine so you won't have any homework."

Percy seemed to do a double-take. "So... I got it wrong?"

"No, you got it right," Annabeth said sarcastically.

"Oh, thank god, you had me for a moment there I actually thought that I got it wro..."

"Because you did get it wrong," Annabeth said. "It's one thing not understanding math, but it's another not understanding sarcasm," she said dryly.

Percy frowned. "Tell me how to do it then."

Annabeth looked at him, confused. "You realize that you'll actually have to do work, right?" she asked.

"Yeah," Percy said. "Why else would I come to school?"

"For the education credit," Annabeth said. "I'm just trying to make your life easier by giving you the answers," she said, starting to get frustrated.

"I don't need my life to be easier," Percy said. "I need to learn it... please."

"But, why?" Annabeth snapped, nearing the end of her patience.

"I have someone who's supposed to take care of me who doesn't. It's pretty much the opposite in fact. He controls most aspects of my life and belittles me at every chance... and sometimes worse. He always calls me stupid and says I won't achieve anything. If I can't do anything else about the situation, I at least want to be able to prove him wrong. But I'm sorry for bothering you when you didn't want to teach me," he said turning away.

Annabeth felt a pang of guilt in her heart. She felt bad for his situation, but more than that realized that she was in a similar situation herself. In a flash, she made up her mind. She placed a hand on his shoulder.

"What?" Percy said gloomily, turning around.

"Don't be so grumpy," Annabeth said. "I hate teaching sad people math."

* * *

AN: Holy crap guys its been so long! I am sooooooooo sorry. I really am. I have a million different reasons, but they won't change the fact that I haven't updated in like four months. I have been getting pretty busy, with my SATs and stuff approaching and I have never really been able to consistently update every two weeks, so I'm just going to update this story whenever I can and not every specific time period. Hopefully, this will let me keep coming up with ideas for this story and not overwrite myself into writer's block while still being to update as fast as possible.

This chapter is also a bit short, but I really wanted to release this so y'all knew that I was still here and hadn't died in a hole. On the plus side, I have the next chapter planned out and hopefully will update that soon. I have decided that y'all have waited long enough so the plot will start rolling next chapter (alongside the continued character development).

I don't have much else to say but thank you for all the story has been receiving and that I'm super sorry for the hiatus. Thank you to everyone who has followed, favorited and reviewed this story and leave questions or comments in the reviews. I haven't checked them in a while but I'll try to respond to all the ones I need to in a PM. Thank y'all so much and see you next time. - AtomicRush


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